[Mike McCarty]

Thanks Chris, about the flowers... the thing that is appealing to me about the flowers is their lack of focus. The soft out of focus intrusion of the pink in front of the crisp Layne. This is much easier to do, for me, with a camera than with a brush. I came so close to attempting an out of focus rendition of the flowers. I argued with myself that if the flowers stayed then the chair back had to stay which would tend to explain that they "were" flowers on the dining room table and not some unexplained thing. And then the picture on the wall could stay and yada, yada, yada. These questions regarding composition, especially for us less astute, seem more important to me. I will probably always jigger up an eye or a nose. But these other issues are more difficult to recover from.

And in parting I would say that this simplest form of Layne, which I chose, could be very appealing in a more deft hand. When I started the painting I really didn't know how I would treat the sweater. I'm not thrilled with the way it ended up. When all else was stripped away it fell to the sweater to carry a bigger part of the show. As always it's an interesting process and I learn so much each time out. Thanks again for the encouragement and I look forward to seeing those roses (deftly focused I'm sure).